Weapons: How they Work and What they do
Weapons. They, uh, they make things dead. There are different kinds, they do different amounts of damage, have different firing rates, work against shields differently and god damnit I'm no good at this please someone do something. Weapon Classes and Types Look at any weapon and you'll see the words "Class (Number)" next to their name. That pretty much is the level of the weapon, ranging from 1-10. Class 10 weapons can only be mounted on class 10 slots, while class 1 weapons can be mounted on anything from 1-10 weapon class slots. Missiles fall under this same category. Each ship class can only equip a certain range of maximum weapon classes. A light fighter usually has weapon slots ranging from class 1-4, heavy fighters 5-7 and very heavy fighters 8-10. In addition to these weapon classes, weapons are further sorted down into types. Usually, these are based on energy. Energy styles range from plasma, alien, tacyhons, etc. These work as modifiers against other ships, plasma weapons might do 20% more damage against one type of ship or shield, but 20% less damage against another. Moving on from all that energy related bullshit, you can really sort any weapon into these categories. Heavy Hitler Weapons (Cannons) Usually plasma, these heavy hitting weapons almost always have a slow refire rate, combined with ultra fuck high damage and ultra fuck low speed, which means you tear through enemy hulls like paper, but you have to lead your shots more. Good for killing big slow things and fast stupid things. Fast Firing Weapons Anything really with a refire rate over 5 can be considered Fast Firing Weapons, good for people with bad aim, the fast firing, fast moving weapons usually always hit close to home when fired at damn near anything. ...Ok yeah I really don't have a name for these types of weapons - What about "moderate weapons", dipshit? No, that's fucking stupid, who the hell calls weapons "moderate"? Fuck you all, they're medium weapons now. Basically the shit between Heavy Hitters and Fast Firers, the average man's weapon. Nomad guns fall under this category. Weapon Energy Types Shields in the game have different types of energy, positron, gravitron, hurpaderpatron, etc. These exist because the creators of Freelancer somehow decided that adding a game mechanic that no one cares about would make the game better. All it does is make things mildly annoying. However in /v/lancer this is not the case, as weapon energy type and shield energy type will make or break a dogfight occasionally. Research what types of lasers take down what types of shield, and maybe you won't suck so much. What weapons are right for me? If you suck, Fast Firing, if you don't, anything else. What, you expected a big long article? Fuck off. My god, you guys are pathetic. Time to work some of the magic known as "effort" The above, very brief idea of what you want in a weapon is accurate. If you're not a good aimer, you want one of the fast weapons because you don't have to lead them as much and if you miss once or twice, it's not a big deal, just recenter your aim and keep shooting. In the end though, your best bet is probably one of the moderate weapons. But there are a fuckton of different types of those, so which one should you choose? There are a few things to consider: *Speed: as addressed earlier, weapons that move faster are easier to use, so if your aim sucks, choose ones with high speed. But always remember (and this is so important that it is not only bolded, but also italicized): make sure that all your weapons have the same speed rating. If your weapon's speeds don't line up, you won't hit with all of them when you hit, so make sure they do. *Range: Range is generally unimportant, but hitting a foe before he can hit you is an ability that has great merit. High range weapons are also better for nailing pussies who are trying to run their stupid asses away. *DPS vs energy consumption: If you're confused about which weapons have higher DPS/energy consumption, don't be. just multiply the energy or damage rating by the refire rate. whichever weapon has the higher damage number is the most powerful, and whichever has the lowest energy number is the most efficient. Some weapons have a higher DPS than others in exchange for higher energy consumption. Nine times out of ten, you want the one that hits harder. Weapon energy restores very fast, so you generally don't need to worry about controlling energy consumption unless you have an excessive number of guns firing at once. Which also brings us to: *Missiles vs guns: This is a tough one, and it really depends on how you dogfight. If you use the "missile ram" technique, you obviously want missles, but if you don't use this, missiles become a situational weapon. Missiles only work against big fat slow ships, or against foes going towards you or away from you; otherwise they just dodge. Remember that energy restores very quickly, so even if you have a large number of high class, energy guzzling weapons, a few seconds of dodging and not firing will bring you back up to full energy. However, missiles are very, very powerful, and have longer range than guns. If you have the extra cash to spend on the ammunition, missiles are a way to bring a deadly punch to your arsenal without driving up your energy consumption, but if you don't want to shell out the extra money for the ammo, going in with nothing but guns does work just fine. *Cruise disruptors/torpedoes: I have never, even once, ever had to use a cruise disruptor. Most enemies are too stupid to even try to run until their hull is almost gone, so when they try to run, shooting them down before their engines charge is easy. It is useful for pissing people off and nailing them in PVP though. As for torpedoes, they're just slower, longer ranged, more powerful missiles. Don't even try to use these things against fighters, these are strictly for use against shit that moves like a retarded snail if at all. They're useful for adding a little free DPS for killing bases and big ships, being that they don't use up a weapon slot.